GardenMan, I created an account on PhotoBucket and when I want to show a picture in the forum I just cust and paste into the Message the entire line that is in the "HTML Code" row. (You will see how your photo shows when you click Preview Message.) Goatster, I have continued to put bagged leaves collected between Thanksgiving and Christmas over my entire garden. I till these in when they decompose. My garden is full of earthworms as a result. To feed, I do have to add an occasional "tweak" with 13-13-13.

Looks like a Pumpkin Ash (Fraxinus profunda) Pumpkin ash is a large tree, reaching heights to 80 feet and sometimes up to 130 feet, with a trunk diameter of up to 5 feet on sites with excellent growing conditions. You might could try your luck at digging it up and moving it but you might have to cut it back to small size so the small amount of roots left can support the foliage above, not having much roots could likely kill the tree if moved but if you wanted to take you chance and try you could. Or you could just cut it down.

TF... not sure which block wall you are referring to. Other side of the two taller block walls (on the right side of the picture and the top of the picture) are neighbors yards. the small 3-4 foot retaining wall that sits underneath the large block wall in the back of the yard is part of my yard and has some sort of shrub that I don't know the name of. It was recommended by a nursery when i moved here knowing nothing about plants. Whatever it is, I don't care for it and will eventually replace those as well. Probably with Natal Plum, which I already have a few of growing on that very same ledge, but to the left out of the picture. They seem to do well in that spot, ever-green and have flowers that smell nice. I thought I read on some other thread about figs that somebody in the Phoenix area had that Bordeaux variety (among quite a few others) and said it was the best producer and their favorite of them all. I could be imagining that though.

Deciduous choices: 1. A small native tree, cercis occidentalis (Western redbud). Gets to about 15 feet. Usually grows as a multi-trunk. Usually blooms better inland where it gets colder. Attracts hummingbirds. Doesn't bloom heavily near the coast where I live. Rounded shape and leaves. Well-behaved rootwise. Mine is 5 feet from our pool. 2. Chaste tree (vitex agnus-castus). Great, reliable summer bloomer, even near the coast. Attracts hummers and butterflies. Roots well behaved--ours is also 5 feet from the pool like our cercis occidentalis. To about 15 feet. We've grown ours as a multi-trunk. Some people like to keep the tree trimmed as a large shrub. (You can see a small portion of the Western redbud in the foreground to the left.) 3. Forest pansy redbud (cercis canadensis). This one blooms better (at least in my location) than my native redbud.